Parliamentary diplomacy can help Taiwan pave an alternative path in carving out its role in the international arena and deserves more credit, attention and resources, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said on Monday.
Speaking to dozens of future diplomats in a training class, Wang said this type of diplomacy could help Taiwan develop its “smart power” to gain mutual benefits for Taiwan and other countries.
Wang defined parliamentary diplomacy as the speaker or deputy speaker of the legislature visiting and receiving foreign parliamentarians, attending international meetings and organizations or establishing “Friends of Taiwan” groups to increase Taiwan’s international exposure and visibility.
“The Legislative Yuan is an official branch of the Taiwanese government, but at the same time it also plays a role as a democratic body in representing the people,” Wang said.
“That is why the parliament is not that ‘sensitive’ an institution in the arena of diplomacy, where China has been blocking Taiwan’s ‘‘traditional diplomacy’ for years,” he said.
Taiwan can take advantage of parliamentary diplomacy to develop relations with other countries, especially those that do not have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, Wang said.
The legislature has been very active in developing ties with foreign parliaments, especially in the US, Japan and Europe, he said.
During the current legislature that began in February 2008, the Legislature has received 34 presidential or congressional delegations, 764 foreign delegations and 13,958 foreign parliamentarians.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
RSS